with a side of bike & run

I honestly don’t even know where to begin when it comes to the Boston Marathon weekend Recap. The weekend was so busy, so inspiring and SO MUCH FUN. Marathon Monday started early, lots of running around and coordinating things before making the trek out to Newton to spectate and meet Noel. Eeeeek!!! I apologize for how long this post is, I swear I will stop being THIS excited eventually, but the Doctor says that this obsession will probably stick around for awhile.

After seeing Kate on Saturday, I called her Sunday night and asked if she would have any interest in spectating and potentially running in with Noel. She immediately answered yes and that she was secretly hoping I would ask. I <3 running friends!

We met in the Back Bay and then hopped onto the T around 9:30. Since the Red Sox game starts at 11am and there are so many folks in town for the marathon the MBTA is a disaster. We shrugged our shoulders and just went with it.

We ended up getting on the C Green line train which was on the marathon route, which made for some fun wheel chair racing spectating. I am so in awe of the wheelchair athletes, especially those who participate in Boston with all of those hills! From there we began our trek from Cleveland Circle back to Mile 19ish.

Walking through Boston College was SUCH a trip. There were drunk kids everywhere and their excitement for the race was papable. Once we maneuvered the crowds we found a great spot near the 21 Mile marker and decided to hunker down for a bit and watch the elites come through. Since we were out there so early we scoped out an unbelievable spot. Even though I had told Noel I was aiming for 18.5, we ultimately decided trying to find her at 21 was better than risking a tough spectating situation on the Newton Hills.

While waiting anxiously for runners we chatted excitedly about races, training and life. I love the vibe the entire weekend, but nothing compares to Marathon Monday for a boost of inspiration to achieve your athletic goals.

So much fun

When the lead women came through we were FREAKING out. I think I still have a blister on my hand from banging my tiny cowbell so hard. Spectating is hard work, clearly.

KARA!!!!!

Making it look easy

Ryan Hall, looking like a horse with that stride.

Shortly after the men the masses came! This is where the real fun began, trying to pick out all of the people I knew who were running! I missed several people but I did see Emily, Corey & Molly and Skinny Runner. Oh and this man who ran in a Tutu w/ a wand.

"Tutu fast for you!"

Foxy was stuck at work, but he was manning the “command center” by continually texting updates of Noel’s splits throughout the race (I never rely on text alerts, these have absolutely never work for me!) Noel’s big goals were to negative split, feel good and not die. Her first 5k she was pacing 9:15 miles, which is a far departure from the 8 minute miles she was pacing in 2010. With each split she got faster and faster, and knowing her style, she was only going to be hammering down like crazy as she approached the end. Foxy sent out a text with an update from her 30k splitKate and I anxiously waited. After a few false alarms, I saw her neon pink get up about a 100 yards away and I went crazy cheering & hopped in with her.

Her first words? “FINALLY!!!!!!!” Kate and I hopped in and asked how she was doing. She said she felt great and she was really enjoying herself. Her second question was “Wait, was that Heartbreak? Is it over?” I just said “YES!!!” Too much, love it. I then proceeded to force feed her gatorade and Kate and I gave her updates on who won and how Kara Goucher looked. She did say that focusing on meeting the two of us in Newton helped miles 10-20 speed by, thank god we met her! She also said she was making sure to really soak of every moment and that she thoroughly enjoyed all of the signs in Wellesley, which last year she didn’t even remember.

This is how you run a marathon & enjoy it!

I realized about a half mile in that I never started my gamin, so I quickly started it and noticed we were pacing 7:30 miles. I warned Noel several times and she would pull back for a 30 seconds and then speed back up. The excitement was so intense at this point that it was so hard to hold back!

Somewhere around mile 23 we ran into Janna, who was also running for the American Cancer Society’s DetermiNation Program.

I LOVE this picture. I was so happy I was able to jump in with Noel & experience some of the madness of Boston 🙂 I joked that we were the pit crew, but this probably helped her kick it up and notch seeing as how she was able to blow by water stops when she was feeling so great.

As we tore through Brookline the crowds kept on getting bigger and bigger. Noel’s outfit was in fact neon, but I felt like everyone around her was screaming “NOEL, NOEL, NOEL!!!” At one point I said to her “wow, EVERYONE loves you” 🙂

Near St Mary’s street, which is just before Kenmore Sq and mile 25, Noel was really in the zone and pacing well ahead of us. Kate & I had a quick pow wow and decided to send her on her way and finish hard. Kate and I ran the rest of the course on the side walk weaving in and out of drunk college kids and Sox fans. Fun times.

By the time we got to the Back Bay, Rob texted me and said that Noel had finished in 3:38:00!!! I was soooo happy for her I just wanted to get to give her a huge hug! For someone who had such a bad training cycle, that is an IMPRESSIVE race. I was so proud of my friend and seriously could not stop talking running craziness. Sorry Kate!

I met her at the Park Plaza hotel with the DetermiNation team event. It was great to see her and the rest of the runners to check in and see how their faired. Overall, everyone had awesome races.

From there we walked over to Noel’s hotel to shower up and get ready for the celebration dinner at Toro. We were walking along when I saw the CUTEST yellow lab puppy that I’ve ever seen! The owner was actually on the phone and I basically asked her to hang up so we could stalk her puppy.

OH.MY.GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!

When I finally pried myself away from the cutest little puppy ever (I say this about almost every dog I see, but this one it a contender for “cutest dog ever” in my book) We then showered up and went to dinner at Toro to celebrate!

Noel & Her mom

Overall, 2011 Boston Marathon weekend was action packed and oodles of fun. Meeting bloggers I stalk everyday of my life and learning that they are in fact the bomb.com in the flesh?! AWESOME! Spending quality time with one of my best friends and running a couple miles of the marathon with her? Ummm, amazing. I’m so sad the marathon is over, but I’m so proud of everyone who raced, whether you had the race of your life or not, you conquered Boston!

Sunday started early, my alarm went off at 6am and I popped right out of bed and got to coordinating my pre-race essentials. I got dressed, made myself some coffee, stretched, ate a banana & a kashi bar. As I got everything organized I could hear the rain pounding on my windows…blast, this definitely SUCKS. Another icky detail was the fact that I had apparently come down with a head cold/congestion issue overnight. I was coughing and generally felt off. Oh well! I tend to feel better working out when i am sick, so I was hoping that this would be the case today. An added bonus, luckily after about 15 minutes the rain let up and by the time I stepped outside it wasn’t rainy and it was WARM!

We showed up to the race and we were pushed around by some of the most intense wind I have ever experienced, bah! After picking up my friend Kate’s & Foxy’s bib, we decided to seek out real bathrooms right around the corner from the start (shhh, I’m not telling my secret!) My friend Katy then met us and we made our way to the start line.

Katy and I made our way towards the front, which was still a bit of a hopeless task as the start line was absolutely PACKED with runners. Katy and I were both discussing how many things weren’t falling into place for us, and decided we would just enjoy the atmosphere and try to run the best race possible! We bumped into Katy’s dad who was volunteering as a race official (also volunteered as official race staff of the Marathon, sooo amazing) and then seconds later we saw my friend Noel, fresh from her shake out run! After listening to God Bless America and the National Anthem, we were off!

The first mile was a bit of a shitshow, but I just tried to focus on a good stride and enjoying myself. I was weaving in and out of so many people I knew my time was going to be slow, so why not enjoy this?! We crested the hill near the Massachusetts State House, and as we ran down the hill on Beacon St I saw @Ninaruns!! She was such a trooper clapping and cheering for all of the runners that early in the morning and it gave me a huge boost! Thank you Nina!

Mile 1: 7:52, ehhh

As we made the turn into the Back Bay, things leveled out and I tried to find a pocket where I wasn’t surrounded by a million people. I was feeling relatively strong when I looked down at my watch and a man in front of me slowed down, causing a possibly epic collision. Whoops! I recovered and soldiered on. I finally felt the humidity and moisture in the air and found it a little hard to breathe with my congestion. I just told myself “you’re not going to die, just push it!”

Mile 2: 7:32

Right after this photo was taken I really started to hate my life. Really Kim? Another 5k? Stupiddd. I just tried to hammer down but I was having a hard time moving. The BAA 5k takes the same left hand turn onto Boylston St as the Boston Marathon, so I tried to savor this moment as so many people I knew would a little over 24 hours from my race. I made the turn and I hoped that would get my legs moving. No dice. I just dug deep and tried to push to the finish, but it was hard to breathe!

Mile 3: 7:45, .15: 1:02

In general I wasn’t overly enthused with this race, but it’s always fun to run races with friends, so I really shouldn’t complain! Katy had a frustrating race as well, and Foxy & Kate both had solid, fun races. I think I need to shy away from 5k’s and amp up the 10k, 10 miler and half marathon distance. I’ve never had fast twitch muscles in my life, so why do I think I would acquire this gene at 27?!

After the run we showered at Noel’s hotel (THANK YOU NOEL!!!) and caught a cab to Harvard Sq for the DetermiNation team brunch event at Tommy Doyle’s. It was a great chance to meet the runners, particularly Nancy & David and the rest of the INCREDIBLE Dream team. I had tracked several of them via twitter and Daily Mile so it was wonderful being able to meet these talented and compassionate individuals. The American Cancer Society DetermiNation program is not an official BAA charity, so in order to be affiliated with the race the ACS must ask runners who have already qualified to raise money for them. It’s an uphill battle, but the team of 19 was such a dynamic group that their personalities and commitment to fundraising made up for their size.

DetermiNation Runners!

Volunteering with this group is such a wonderful and rewarding experience. Raising money for Cancer research, outreach and support is such an important cause to me personally and one of the biggest motivators for why I run (more on this later!) Plus, coordinating events surrounding running, road races & amazing people is so much fun it hardly even feels like work or volunteering!

Some D-Nation Committee Members: Kim, Lisa & Aimee!

The brunch consisted of yummy food, great conversation & of course wonderful speakers.

From there, Rob & I hopped on the T and made our way to Hynes Convention Center to man the DetermiNation Booth at the Boston Marathon Expo for a few hours.

Can you tell we were tired?

We left the expo shortly after 3pm, and walked over to Noel’s hotel to pick her and her mom up for the big pre race dinner! After a lot of planning, I decided to cancel our 7:30 Giacamo’s reservation in favor of grabbing dinner around 5-6pm at a reliable, quick pasta restaurant. We had a great quick dinner and Noel said she felt relaxed and her big goals for the race were negative splitting and enjoying the whole Boston experience.

The excitement was brewing and I couldn’t wait to go to bed just so I could wake up the next morning so it would be my favorite day of the year: MARATHON MONDAY! 🙂

The Boston Marathon weekend is HERE!! Lizzy & I threw a Boston Blogger meet-up at Cambridge, 1 in the Fenway area, it was so much fun! If you live in Boston and ever need a spot to grab great food before or after a game, this is the perfect place. They have fantastic flatbread pizzas with really creative and high quality ingredients. They were nice enough to let us use their space and donate some of the delicious pizzas to feed our hungry, carbo-loading Boston Marathoners.

Noel & Katy bonded over marathon memories…

Emily ate cupcakes…as usual.

There were delicious pizzas!

Loving how many marathon addicts were out!

Some of the bloggers! Thank you to everyone for coming.

Boston Marathoners!

I like your carbo loading style ladies!

SF LADIES! So wonderful to meet you, I’m getting so excited for SFM 🙂

Kirsten won New Balance Minimus shoes, woo!

Afterwards we took all of the extra shwag and piled into Lizzy’s car…only to get stuck in tons of Sox traffic. Eeek. Even though traffic was crazy, we still had a blast joking around.

Lizzy and I are throwing an awesome Marathon Pre-Party complete with awesome goody bags filled with shwag! Since Lizzy is running on Monday, I told her not to worry and I would coordinate all of the last minute shwag details for the event. That means this week has been filled with a GAZILLION errands and Foxy has been earning boyfriend of year points left and right by catering me all over town to get running accessory samples. If you come to the party on Saturday, definitely give Foxy kudos.

Goody bags taking up temporary residence in my tiny apt

Oh, and did I mention mini-cupcakes?!?! Last night I started prepping everything for Saturday. And the flavors? Peanut buttercup, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough & Regular old vanilla cake, complete with my favorite frosting. For those who are running and don’t want to indulge prior to the big race, I will be asking for plenty of small “to-go boxes” so you can enjoy them post race if you so please!

Just a few in production

No, this isn’t my to do list for work, this is my Boston Marathon Weekend To Do list, yikes!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am planning on meeting my friend Noel around mile 19 in Newton and pacing her for the rest of the race. I figured establishing a BRIGHT outfit ahead of time would help make me stick out. Runners, look for me as the crazy girl with the seizure inducing running outfit. (Yes, my bedding is Pink and Green…no I’m not a 5 year old girl, I’m a prep from New England!)

And yes, all of this prep work, running around like a crazy person, & planning is worth it! IT’S the best weekend of the year!!!!! Marathon Monday just around the corner! Good luck Runners!!!

If you are in town for the marathon, what is your Marathon Weekend plan?!

Ahh, the Boston Marathon. People train their whole lives to qualify and spend thousands of dollars to make the trip. It’s a running rite of passage. Even though I’ve never run Boston, my heart swells with pride when I talk about the Boston marathon. The traditions of the race, how every year it gets more competitive to qualify and sign up. However, a little part of me does wish that Boston was had a set up like Chicago, sign up on registration day with no qualification guidelines? Sure! Hmmm, not Boston though. Or how about NYC? Enter a lottery OR, if you live in the area, join a the NYRR running club & run 9 races to obtain and automatic entry. Very cool, but again not Boston.

For as prestigious and coveted the Boston Marathon is, the marathon organizers are decidedly lackadaisical about letting unofficial runners just hop right in. It is estimated that in addition to the 20,000 qualified & charity runners (does anyone know the exact number?), as many as 2,000 runners run as “bandits”. Meaning that they line up in Hopkinton behind corral three, without numbers and run the same exact race as the rest of the field. Sure, they don’t get an official time, but they do get to experience one of the world’s best marathons without qualifying or raising money.

I personally love finding my name in race results, free t-shirts, space blankets and most importantly, BLING. Running as a bandit doesn’t exactly appeal to me personally, but for the average runner, it’s their only option to run Boston.

What is your opinion on bandit marathoners?

One huge advantage to the BAA turning a blind eye to bandit runners, is the ability to hop in, offer fresh legs and a mental boost to friends running the storied 26.2 mile course. Plus, you get to take part in a tiny piece of the action that IS Boston. I did this back in 2007 when my good friend Katy ran the Boston Marathon for the second time. That year was absolutely awful weather it was the first year on record that the BAA actually thought about canceling the race. It also marked my first official April as a Boston resident as a working professional, so my excitement for Patriot’s Day brewed over the 4 months of Katy’s training. I woke up Monday morning to pouring rain, but that couldn’t dampen my spirits! I was so anxious to get out to Chestnut Hill that I found myself fidgeting and anxiously texting my friends about Katy’s race.

I woke up on Monday morning & I took the long ride out to Boston College from my neighborhood (that day it took almost two hours, MBTA, are you listening?!), and when I finally found Zach, we assumed Katy would be there any second according to our predictions. So we waited, anxiously scanning the crowd. And we waited…and we waited. Finally a group of men running in Elvis costume’s ran up to me and asked me to take a picture of them. I agreed and as I was focusing their camera I saw Katy and her dad in the background. Ahhh! I quickly snapped the photo and hoped in.

Katy’s first words? “I’m NEVER running a marathon EVER AGAIN” (nice work Katy, we’ve all said this, yet we keep coming back for more) Zach and I kept things light and just tried to stay encouraging.

Luckily, running past BC was a huge mental lift for Katy. We had only graduated the year before so she still knew a lot of students, and plenty of friends were out along the course.

One of the rare smiles that Katy let out during the last 5 miles of the 2007 Boston Marathon!

As the miles ticked by, we saw more and more Boston landmarks, Coolidge Corner, the Citgo Sign, Fenway Park, the Prudential Tower…then we made a right on Hereford st. At this point Katy was struggling but the sheer determination to finish was keeping her legs moving. We continued to run and took a left on Boylston St. At that point I was working in the John Hancock Tower, so I spent nearly everyday in this amazing area on the city. It was terrible weather, but on this gloomy day in April, I’ve never seen the neighborhood look so beautiful: the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Even though I had only run 5 miles, waves of emotion came over me. My friend and her dad were finishing Boston!

Katy and I still to this day look back on this fondly, it was an amazing experience as a spectator, and hopefully it helped her as a runner. This year I’m looking forward to reliving those first “semi bandit” memories by jumping in and pacing my friend Noel around mile 19.

I love the city of Boston with all of my heart, and as much as I wish I could just sign up for the Boston Marathon like any ole race, there is no way around it. Boston is Boston and someday, no matter what it takes, I will get there 😉 Until then, Good luck to everyone running on Monday!

Does anyone remember the Sound of Music? Aside from “Edelweiss”, “The Hills are Alive” I think of Julie Andrews belting out her version of Friday Faves : “These are a few of my favorite things” since this weekend was absolutely gorgeous & full of great times, I feel like if I was actually creative I could put my own spin on these. However, for the sake of everyone’s sanity, I’ll list it off…

On Friday night my bestie from High School was in town, Kaitlin, and played bartender and made absolutely sinful cucumber basil gin martinis. Seriously, I’m not sure if a single drink could encapsulate all of my favorite things in one fancy glass.

We spent the night chatting, joking, munching and laughing! I was so happy that she was able to squeeze in a quick visit before her family obligations.

This is a riff on her mom’s Facebook photos where she is always making a cute face & holding a fancy cocktail 🙂 Sorry Kay!

Saturday I woke up feeling a little out of it, but it was so gorgeous that I couldn’t resist heading out for a quick three mile run. Afterward I got ready & headed downtown to meet up with some fabulous blogger ladies! Emily, Lauren, Becky, Lizzy & Corey

This morning I peeled myself out of bed, started rummaging around in my closet when I made a major discovery. I screamed & jumped up and down, YESSS! After a week of separation I found my sacred LIVESTRONG Bright Yellow Running hat.

This hat is my personal favorite for the technical aspects, but most importantly, it has been with me when I started my journey with running marathons. The thought of losing my trusty hat left me feeling panicked.

Foxy bought me the hat at Niketown in Boston prior to the 2008 ING NYC Marathon which I ran for LIVESTRONG foundation in honor of a recently deceased friend. I brought the hat with me to NYC & ran 26.2 miles in what was one of the most exciting days of my life.

The hat has been through the GOOD in…

Mile 24 in NYC! The hat was great for my spectators, who had no problem spotting me in that crowds of New York

Noel, one of my best friends from college & fellow Marathon addict comes to Boston exactly ONE week from today!!

Kim & Noley Summer of 2007 on a Boston Harbor Cruise

Noel at mile 17 of the 2010 Boston Marathon!

My best friend from high school will be in town for a family party & I get to see her Friday night! In order to maximize our time together I did my long run a little early, Thursday night

"She's From Boston"

Racing!

Doyle’s Five Mile Road race in Jamaica Plain, form what I’ve heard this race is a really fun time, and I am looking forward to fresh legs and possibly a 5 miler PR and enjoy the beautiful “emerald necklace” area of Boston.

I’m officially going to my 5 Year College Reunion. I can’t believe it’s been 5 years since I graduated, it honestly feels like yesterday! I’m so excited for good friends, good memories, cheap bars & BAGPIPES.

DetermiNation Pub Runs, I forgot my camera this week, but we had a great time with a gorgeous sunset on the Charles River last night.

I used to think that I was a zen runner, I would just put on my shoes and run and be happy. I’m not sure where or how I arrived at that notion, because I’ve always been a girl who is fixated on competing and constantly improving upon my last race. My obsession with competing and training hard all started with swimming.

SwimmyKimy in her natural state

I’m not sure where it came from, but there was something inside of me that loved and craved pushing myself to the limit and giving a practice my absolute 100%. I was absolutely infatuated with knowing my splits my every time I dipped a toe in the pool, whether it be the biggest race of my life or a regular ‘ole practice. I was known to haze younger swimmers forcing them to choose the harder interval with me. On occasion I also went a bit too far when hyping up teammates before a big race, oops. Oh, and on top of that, I was plain CRAZY when it came to beating my opponents.

So where the HECK did this idea come from? That I was going to just go for a run, not really know my time and be happy with that? Hmm. Seems like an ill-fated idea if you ask me.

Well, it was.

Slowly over time several of my running buddies have taken the plunge and bought a Garmin or Polar GPS watch. I was always intrigued, and I loved hearing my splits. I found myself obsessively asking friends that owned a GPS watch what the pace and current mileage total was. Finally around Christmas time I found a good deal on Amazon.com for the Garmin Forerunner 405CX. I mulled it over for a few days, read some reviews and then when Santa brought me money for Christmas I decided to take the plunge.

I know I’m a little late to the Garmin party, but here are my thoughts on the product

Pros

It’s small, so it doesn’t bother me when I’m running – Call me picky, but the Garmin 305 looked like a huge remote on your wrist. I’m very particular with how things fit/feel when I’m running, so I knew that wouldn’t work. The smaller/sleeker design did just the trick!

Garmin Connect – This is absolutely life changing. Uploading all of the data is extremely easy, almost too easy! Instead of having to where a standard watch, track my route on mapmyrun.com and then figure out my “average pace” Garmin collects all the data for each mile, elevation, the exact route, etc. Pretty much any and all data that you would want from your run. Cue massive geek fest.

Ease of use – After playing around with it for an entire weekend, I figured out all of the fun features & Garmin Connect. I’m sure I will continue to find new things, but for now I have the basics down

Perpetuating my competitive edge – Having the ability to constantly know my run stats has made me more aware of my training and I’m looking forward to using it throughout this marathon training cycle

Cons

Obsessively checking my pace- The Garmin is amazing, but sometimes I feel like I can’t just relax and RUN for enjoyment.

Loss of signal – Living in a city with tall buildings, every now and then I lose the Garmin signal. Which creates waves of panic and hysteria. But then I just remind myself, it’s just running!

Abridged version: I am hooked. I’ve waved goodbye to the “Zen Runner” I once thought I was and I look forward to a long friendship with my (not so) new best friend. Lizzy, thank you for introducing me to Garmin. I know it won’t always be a great friendship, so sometimes I will leave G at home, but for now it’s opening a whole new world of running to me!

A fun & popular 5k that takes place the day before the marathon. It’s officially the most expensive 5k I have ever registered for, but the awesome t-shirt, medal, fast field & finishing under the official Boston Marathon finish line makes it worth it.

This race is apparently very hilly and challenging and weaves throughout scenic Jamestown and Newport, RI. I definitely need the hill race experience so this is a no-brainer in my book. Plus Katy & I will be running this one together!

Oh Heartbreak, we meet again. Remember that time I vowed to never run you again? Well, those emotions were fleeting and I’m hungry and ready for more! I’m looking forward to improving upon last year’s time which given my awful race, won’t be terribly difficult

One of my favorite spring/summer events in Boston! It starts and ends at Boston Common, and it’s a great chance to get out of the office with coworkers and get your sweat on followed by a few celebratory brews afterwards.

I’m pretty excited for this one, it’s a great excuse to get to Nantucket during the peak summer months and spend time with friends! This is the weekend before SF so I will be keeping this fun and avoiding ruining my taper.